Oliver Wyman Actuarial - Senior HC Business Partner - NY/Chicago

About the role

The Senior Human Capital (HC) Business Partner serves as a senior strategic advisor to Oliver Wyman Actuarial's Property & Casualty and Life practices. Embedded closely with practice leadership, this role acts as a key conduit between the practices and the HC team, bringing practice insight, needs, and risks back to HC so the function can provide timely, aligned, and commercially grounded support to the business.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Human Capital Partnership
  Serve as the go-to Human Capital partner to the leadership teams of the Property & Casualty and Life practices.
  Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, helping translate business strategy into people priorities and actionable plans, in alignment with the firm-wide HC strategy.
  Build strong relationships and credibility across all levels of the organization, influencing leaders through data, deep business understanding, HR expertise, sound judgment, and trust.
  Partner with leadership to anticipate organizational challenges and proactively develop solutions that support business objectives, and/or partner with others in the HC function (e.g., Talent Development) to bring these solutions to life.

• Change Management and Business Transformation
  Lead and support complex organizational and people-related change initiatives, including developing plans for change management, stakeholder engagement, and communications.
  Help leaders navigate periods of transformation while maintaining colleague engagement, productivity, and culture.
  Identify organizational risks and opportunities associated with business change, partnering with the Director of HC to recommend practical solutions.
  Ensure Human Capital is appropriately represented and engaged in significant business decisions and transformation efforts.

• Talent Strategy & Workforce Planning
  Support workforce planning, leadership development, and people/culture initiatives that further business aims, leveraging frameworks and processes from our Talent Development team as appropriate.
  Coach and advise leaders on people management and leadership, team effectiveness, talent decisions, and organizational dynamics.
  Identify capability/skill gaps and work with relevant partners (e.g., Talent Development, Recruiting) to develop targeted solutions.
  Foster a culture of continuous development, accountability, and high performance.

• Performance Management
  Partner closely with Talent Development to ensure our performance management approaches remain fit for purpose in support of business objectives, and to deliver seamless and effective mid-year and year-end processes.
  Coach leaders through performance-related decisions involving both high-performing and underperforming colleagues.
  Partner with Employee Relations and other specialist teams as needed on complex performance matters.

• Colleague Engagement and Culture
  Partner with Talent Development to analyze annual engagement survey results and ongoing pulse survey feedback to identify key themes and opportunities.
  Monitor engagement trends, retention risks, and other organizational health indicators (e.g., hiring, performance, promotion, mobility).
  Facilitate action planning with business leaders to address engagement opportunities and improve colleague experience, belonging, and retention.

• Employee Relations
  Partner closely with Employee Relations specialists on sensitive colleague matters and investigations.
  Coach leaders through complex people situations while ensuring appropriate risk management and compliance.
  Support resolution of employee concerns in a fair, thoughtful, and business-aligned manner.
  Participate in investigations and sensitive employee matters as appropriate.

• HC Effectiveness and Continuous Improvement
  Support efforts to continuously improve and streamline Human Capital processes and ways of working, helping to drive increased consistency and reduce administrative burden on the business.
  Lead by example in the thoughtful use of AI in HC, and be an agent of change (both within HC and the business) in driving AI adoption.
  Partner closely with other functions such as Global Mobility and Compensation to further strengthen these collaborations and bring additional clarity to the operating model as needed; help improve awareness within the business of key roles, responsibilities, and process steps.
  Contribute to the continued evolution of a high-performing, efficient, and impactful Human Capital function.
  Provide oversight, coaching, and/or direct management support to Human Capital Coordinators and other shared HC support colleagues.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required.
• 10+ years of progressive Human Resources experience.
• Minimum 5 years of Human Resources Business Partner or comparable business-facing Human Capital experience.
• Experience supporting senior leaders and leadership teams in complex organizational environments, and leading/supporting significant change initiatives.
• Professional services experience required; consulting industry experience strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with the actuarial, insurance, or reinsurance talent market preferred.
• Demonstrated success influencing senior stakeholders and building trusted advisor relationships.
• Experience utilizing people analytics and workforce data to drive decision-making.
• Experience handling complex employee relations matters and sensitive people issues.
• Experience working within matrixed organizations and partnering across multiple functions.
• SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or comparable Human Resources certification a plus, but not required.